


That Damned Star Iris

by madain_sari



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: F/M, Gen, Steven Universe References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:35:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22299439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madain_sari/pseuds/madain_sari
Summary: Vegeta watches a certain cartoon with a half human boy and three alien godmothers. The universe is still standing.
Relationships: Bulma Briefs/Vegeta
Comments: 8
Kudos: 17





	That Damned Star Iris

Gohan sometimes visited West City for contraband that his mother didn't allow. He'd ask his Kakarot and The Namekian to cover for him then he and Bulma goes to a two story comic store ten miles from the Capsule Corps headquarters. Sometimes Bulma and Gohan ended up watching cartoons together (he didn't hate the one with the twins staying at their uncle's ramshackle wooden house) before he went back to Mt. Paozu. Almost all of the Z Fighters know this one vice Gohan had and they were commited to keeping it secret from his screeching mother. The scarred warrior Bulma used to see sometimes gave Gohan old, yellowing books he used to read when he was a child, the three eyed warrior would bring Gohan illustrated scrolls with thick texts undernearth and the bald monk had muttered something about giving Gohan some semblance of a normal childhood.

Vegeta scoffed at this. What absolute nonsense, these so called comic-books. They're stories told in black and white illustrations bound in cheap paper. Bulma told him most of them are fiction and they don't even correspond to real life or actual earth culture. What even was the use then? Bulma had just shrugged and grunted noncommitaly. "I grew up with them. Used to read an old series called Yoko Tsuno."

He could even time Gohan's arrival like clockwork. He was pretty sure Gohan will arrive in the afternoon that day, pick up Bulma from her office and go on their outing. He was proven right. Gohan was sitting down in the living room, next to a small bag filled with books, studiously reading while eating some cookies.

"Don't you want read something to better yourself, boy?!" he finally asked. Gohan was reading a book with a dog dressed in astronaut gear.

Gohan peeked his head up to look at him. "It's nice, though Vegeta."

Vegeta groaned loudly.

Bulma, who came back with two jars of pinapple cookies and a glass of juice exclaimed, "Oh! Aren't you a little young to be reading Pug Davis, Gohan?", one of her eyebrows rising. Gohan suddenly looked anywhere but the book. Bulma winked. "I won't tell your mother if you won't." They shared a small chuckle.

Ludicrous.

* * *

She had insisted in doing these things she called pillow talks when they finished fucking. (because, how else would he describe the act?)

"Y'know, I heard Samantha Pepper is getting a TV series."

"Again, woman, I have no idea what or who you are referring to."

"The writer and artist of that book, you know?"

"You need to be more specific."

"That book you flipped through, a couple of months ago."

Vegeta looked at her, unimpressed.

"The one with the dog-man in space?"

"Oh!"

Honestly he wasn't really sure how he should have taken the news. It had nothing to do with Kakarot, the Androids, or becoming Super Saiyan.

"Heard it's going to be about a boy with space warriors."

He barked a laugh.

"You would have a better story than her, woman."

Bulma just gave him a confused half grin. "Thanks, I guess?"

"You went to Namek with Kakarot's spawn and the bald one, build the damn spaceship and survived. Above all, you know me, I'm surprised you don't go out of your way to crow about it." She has this tendency of gloating that he didn't find unpleasant. Amusing, in fact.

It was Bulma's turn to scoff. "Yeah, hahaha no." She paused and planted a peck on his nose, "Last time I checked, I'm an engineer, not artist,"

He rolled over and hoisted himself so he was above her. "Well," he started, nipping at her neck, "maybe," he moved to her collar bone, "You," he moved lower, "should."

Bulma just giggled.

* * *

Then life just got...busy. There was no longer time to ponder Gohan's secret vice. There was ascending as a super saiyan, finding out that all the time he was in space Bulma was gestating his offspring, the Androids, discovering that the purple-haired Saiyan is his son from an alternate future timeline, Cell, Kakarot's funeral...

One hot afternoon he heard noises from the living room, no doubt it was the TV, Gohan was there, babysitting Trunks and baby Goten. Bulma had gone to a university conference in North City to hire new employees for Capsule Corps. He sat himself down on the sofa, next to his son who crawled up to him.

"Hey Vegeta," Gohan greeted him

"-Geta!" Goten parroted.

"What are you watching?" On the screen was a small boy with a pink shirt playing some sort of musical instrument, one skinny looking humanoid with a ovoid object on their forehead, a purple humanoid with long hair and a goat. And they're singing. He frowned.

"Stephen Galaxy!" Gohan supplied. "It's about this young boy who is half earthling half alien with his three godmother alien warriors."

Vegeta seemed to recall Bulma saying something about this, a while ago. "Half earthling, huh?" he repeated, mildly impressed. He didn't expect that any other earthling other than Bulma or Kakarot's wife who would have thought of the concept.

"He seems...human enough."

"You have to watch the first episode, Vegeta, he has this shield manifesting from his bellybutton and--"

"Dad, look!" Trunks cried pointing at the TV.

There was now a very tall four-armed woman brandishing what looked like a bow and an arrow made of light to vicious looking birds. The music changed, it speeded up and crescendoed. The female looking humanoid fired the arrow and immediately the birds dissapeared.

He was mildly impressed.

The young, curly haired boy mumbled, "Do you...know who I am?"

The four armed woman softly sang, "All I wanna do, is see you turn into..."

"A Giant Woman..."

The boys had starry eyed look in their faces. Vegeta scoffed. Back to earthling nonsense. He got up and Trunks followed.

* * *

"A... what?"

"An alien made out of hard light projection." Bulma clarified. She gave the circuit board in her hand a once over. "Have you seen ever seen one?"

"What gave you that idea?" He had to stop working out in the Gravity Room nonstop, the machinery would overload and malfunction. "None in my sector."

"Stephen Galaxy,"

"Is it that cartoon with the half human boy?"

"So you do know it!" She had the biggest shit-eating grin.

He rolled his eyes. "Woman, your son is making me watch that series with him."

Bulma commented sarcastically, "Aww, how terrible for you."

He averted his gaze. It wasn't really all that bad if he was honest with himself. They had just watched the episode where the Square Woman and Purple One fused into one destructive being and the boy was actually impressed that the fussy ovoid one, despite her small stature and weaker strenhth didn't immediately give up and relied on her wits to stop the purple giant from destroying everything. "Could be better if they'd just stop crying and singing once in a while maybe."

"It won't be though, Vegeta," Bulma replied. She took her sodering pen and started making patterns on the circuit board. "Give me the schematics on your left."

"You know, you could stand to tidy up this workshop once in a while."

"And stop you from coming here to help me ?", she dramatically exclaimed. "Never!"

He just shook his head and passed her the schematics.

* * *

He had to admit, the more time he spent on earth, their entertainment options was better. No wonder so many of the earthlings are lazy and unremarkable beings, the arts in this planet is highly accesible and had flourished so much more so than anywhere else in the galaxy.

Since Cell's defeat he had started training Trunks, relished Bulma's companionship and acclimatizing himself somewhat to Earth culture. He even occasionally went to the movie theatres with Bulma. He now followed a fantasy show with witches and dragons with blood and gore, another show about men trapped on their ships on frigid environment, and that space cartoon with the half human boy.

The more time he spent watching the cartoon the curioser he got. The show had a cloyingly sweet theme song with light string accompaniments but there was darker, implied undertone. The other two shows he watched may have dismemberment, violence and disasters, but he expected that sort of content. Stephen Galaxy had the audacity to use light and pastel colours but they also animated breakfast foods into giant sentient abominations. The Gems were all damaged former warriors who were just trying to get on with their life after their leader had died. He could relate uncomfortably with their tight-lipped silence about the past, their attempts to shield the boy and let him stay human, and their dismissal of the boy's human father. He even marveled at the fact that they showed the ovoid gem getting stabbed by the A.I she built on her own. (as a result, he had hounded Bulma and insisted she walked through all her dangerous equipment and her safety contingency plans)

Unfortunately, the series somehow experienced many delays and obstacles that Bulma informed was unusual, especially considering its quality. The series had started when Trunks was still four but twenty episodes later Trunks had started his elementary school education, and new episodes were sparse.

Trunks had sort of lost interest, saying it was a show for 'babies' in front of his elementary school friends but when it was actually on the TV, the boy would hover lightly behind his sofa a bit so Trunks could see what he was seeing. Not that he ever really noticed.

* * *

It was the night before Kakarot's arrival for the Tournament. He had been checking the house over, just in case Bulma had missed something. He heard noises from Trunks' bedroom. He must have fallen asleep with his TV on, again. He shook his head and came in. 

"Did you even wonder who I USED TO BE!!!!"

There was an gem with empty eyes asking angrily to the half human boy and his guardians if they had ever known who she was beforehand. Not long after, she formed a giant hand made out of sea water to crush them all.

It was...unnerving. Suddenly he saw his hand bloodied, he was no longer in his son's room, there were bodies strewn all around him and there was a coppery taste at the back of his tongue. What...the hell..?

"Stephen, you're grounded." came the voice from the TV, and it did its signature star iris before closing the episode. A soft piano started playing and the end credits rolled.

He looked around and saw he was still in his son's bedroom, toys strewn all over the floor, stars painted on the ceiling. He turned the TV off immediately and took a deep breath. Trunks was lying down like a human starfish. He tucked Trunks in and went to the door. He took a look at his son again and kissed his forehead before closing the door.

* * *

He's dead but songs were still stuck on his head. How was it still stuck on his head?

_All I wanna do, is see you turn into_  
_A Giant Woman_  
_(A Giant Woman)_

This sucks.

* * *

Fusion, in real life was never going to be as beautiful or as badass as that cartoon made it out to be. For one, he had to fuse with Kakarot, who, somehow is so much worse than the purple gem alien. So so so much worse. Secondly, this was going to be permanent. (circle back to WORSE) How was he going to explain that to their wives?!

At least there wasn't an expy of a rubbery shape shifting creature yet.

* * *

It was...finally over. They won. But honestly he was just exhausted. They flew down from the Lookout and parked themselves on the big couch in the living room. Bulma and Trunks clinged to him as if he was their life raft and he really didn't mind. It was really quiet, his in laws were out of town with their family cat and the Capsule Corps offices was empty because it was the weekend.

It was nice.

* * *

After a very long talk with Bulma, he once again walked to Trunks' room to tuck the boy to bed, this time with his wife in tow.

Once again, the TV was on, but Trunks was awake this time. The eyeless gem had just revealed that her gem is cracked and the half human boy quickly set on healing her. She winced but the stone quickly repaired itself and she sprouted water wings and flew off into space.

Trunks laughed. "If only it was that easy."

He shared a look with his wife and the family chuckled.  
  
  


_If I could begin to be_  
_Half of what you think of me_  
_I could about anything_  
_I would even learn how to love_

**Author's Note:**

> I have wanted to write this fic since Steven U aired. Holy Canoli, it's finally here. I wanted to incorporate Stronger than you or even the Steven movie but...no dice--couldn't find a way to fit it in


End file.
